Underwater Color Correction

[GilbyTwins]

I recently came back from Maui where I was able to baptize my new Sony HDR-HC3 by borrowing the video housing of the diveshop (B&B Scuba, by the way is amazing!) Anyway, I shot an hour's worth of HD quality video of mantas, lots of eels and turtles, sharks, and an octopus. As you can imagine, the quality is incredible, but the water pulled the red out of the video. I was able to color correct my stills, but wondering if anybody had any tips for color correction steps for video, whether through VS 10 or other. Long term I know I should use the appropriate filter, but just wondering if I can tweak this video. Thanks for any advice.

By the way, I converted the video (as is) into DivX HD and purchased an LG DVD player for about $120. Playing the HD footage on a new 50" Pioneer Elite is the most gorgeous video I've ever seen. Man, this HD thing is getting fun!

[bilc]

I found a good program called Video Mach version 3.5.2 last updated 03/03/2006 to do a very good job of color correction. In my case I had video clips which were over saturated with color and this little program corrected the problem. I played with for a while and I know it will correct color , hue contrast etc. I suggest you try it on a 30day free triial basis ( nothing to lose) just keep in mind to get all of the codecs needed to comply with the type of video format .
I picked up K-Light codecs ( free) off the web. As for Video Mach , their web site is Gromada.com
Note: one drawback when it renders which is quite fast it will render the correction in mpeg 1 only.
bilc

[Terry Stetler]

The best fixes are done during the shoot;

1. for blue water an underwater lens filter, usually salmon (UR Pro CY) or Hoya 85 standard filter. They look like this:



This should handle depths from 3-5 meters down to 30 meters or so. Above 3 meters the cams auto white balance can handle it. That or a UR pro VLF filter.

For green water the Hoya FL-Day should work;



2. set & lock the manual white balance at depth with an underwater white balance card, aka: warm balance card, which is actually a light blue/gray & made of plastic or aluminum.

In the edit bay one option is using the Color Balance and Brightness & Contrast filters in tandem. This example shows what's possible;



The settings here were +50 contrast in Brightness & Ccntrast and +50 red, no change green and +25 blue in Color Balance. Don't forget to un-check the 'Replace last filter' box so you can use multiple filters.

This works for green water, but for blue water things differ only in that you would make no change in the blue channel and up both red and green.